Performance horses, by the very nature of the work they are asked to do, are more prone to injuries than horses that are being used primarily for recreational riding. There are a number of studies that offer evidence that certain injuries are more likely to occur with certain disciplines, but an informal survey of several experienced farriers indicates that across disciplines, more common injuries such as sore feet and abscesses are the culprits that farriers most often have to deal with.

In modern brain research, scientists say it takes 10,000 hours to become really competent to where your hands and your mind are all working together, where you don’t have to think about every move you make.

Pal is always lame. He was taken off a slaughter truck about 10 years ago and bought by James Work, a small animal veterinarian in Greenfield, Wis.

Over the past 28 years of my shoeing career, clients, veterinarians and other farriers have asked three common questions about hoof angle. What is the ideal hoof angle? What angle do you like the front hooves? What angle do you try to achieve for hind hooves, etc.?

When experienced farriers check the wear on horseshoes they’ve just removed from a horse, it isn’t just to see whether they can reset them. They’re also looking for valuable information. Four veteran farriers took time to share some of what they’ve gleaned from studying the wear patterns on horseshoes over their careers.